Youthful energy drives the universe

Coraline, Lucy and Gillian work on watercolor projects at Floriopolis.

PANAMA CITY — On three separate occasions in a week’s time, I was reminded how the universe demands a constant influx of energy to keep entropy at bay.

That is, this old man got to see youthful enthusiasm and creativity in action, and basked in the promise of a bright future they represent.

One afternoon, I sat for an interview by three Rutherford High School students, Sarah Khan, Sarah Huerta and Aria Delmar, all 14. They were working on a class project dealing, in part, with a court case in which high school students had purchased an ad in their school paper, but it was rejected for publication because it was against the school’s pro-abstinence stance.

They wanted to ask me about similar cases I had covered for The News Herald during my time as the paper’s education reporter. They asked good questions, including raising references to pledges of journalism ethics. And they forced me to dust off some faded brain cells.

They also joked that part of their presentation would involve a student complaining about how difficult it is to work with the equipment in the classroom — only to “travel back in time” to see how it was done in the days of paste-up page design.

I could almost smell the aroma of hot wax, evoking memories of journalism school and my first newspaper job.

Another day, I visited Floriopolis, the new arts center in St. Andrews, during an after school class for elementary school-age children.

The trio of Coraline, Lucy and Gillian drew clouds and painted watercolor skies. They sprinkled salt on one of the projects. Gillian quite excitedly showed her father her work when he came to pick her up.

I pictured masterpieces hung on a refrigerator door with Panama City Beach magnets, and times past when plastic totes filled with similar art with my children’s names on them.

It was pouring rain the night I visited Aerial Dance Panama City (see next Friday’s edition for the full story), where Melissa St. Clair and her daughter, Gabrielle, were taking a class — learning to climb silk strands and loop them over their limbs to hang suspended in the air.

“You feel it later,” Melissa said as she watched Gabrielle flip and stretch. “I’m envious of her. It’s much easier for her.”

For a second, I connected her statement to what the Rutherford students had said to me about the “time travel” portion of their presentation. It wasn’t the same thing, of course: Melissa was talking about how her daughter’s youth, energy and flexibility made this particular activity easier for her, while the high school students were referencing how the switch from manual labor to digital labor makes activities seem easier today (though we’re expected to accomplish so much more as a result).

Leaving the studio, I heard thunder rumble in the night, the residue of wild energy released in the chaos of the storm. And I thought how, when we were young, we thought we had it tough — but it doesn’t get easier. Not really. You will always need to pour your energy into molding your future. You might think it’s tough now, but you’ll really feel it later.

Peace.

(This was my Undercurrents column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald for Jan. 17.)

Spring Break's Beauty and the Beast

PANAMA CITY BEACH — One was young, fresh of face and light of locks. The other is eligible for AARP, darker, rougher, rounder in different places and — let’s be honest — raunchier.

One is just entering the prime of her life, recently voted the Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire readers. The other is on the far side of his prime and probably best known for all the on-camera sex he’s had.

Both were in town last week to promote products to the Spring Break crowd.

I spent a couple of minutes last Thursday in the company of Katrina Bowden, a 23-year-old who has appeared in movies (“American Reunion”) and TV shows (“30 Rock”). As the cover model for Maxim magazine’s February issue, she was on the beach to represent the magazine and promo the new Nintendo Wii game “Just Dance 3.”

Bowden judged dance-offs on a beachside stage in the afternoon sun behind Boardwalk Beach Resort and later at Hammerhead Fred’s foam party. She also spent time under a small cabana with a group of professional “Just Dance” dancers practicing the game’s moves. (See the full article here.)

Her handlers jealously guarded her time, allowing her to speak for only a few minutes and putting the kibosh on any video of the interview. (I tend to use the video function on my camera to record interviews these days; the handlers were nice enough to allow me to point the camera away from Bowden but hold it near enough that her voice was picked up.)

She seemed very sweet.

After the story appeared, I was asked to remove from the online version of the story a reference to the film “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil,” in which she played the female lead. I enjoyed that movie, and she said it was fun to make. But that wasn’t her reason for being here, apparently, and has been relegated to her imdb.com entry.

>>Here is video from the day, despite her handlers' best efforts.<<

I spent a much longer time talking with former adult film star Ron Jeremy the next day under a tent in sprinkling rain. The 59-year-old was in town to promote a new rum label that bears his name and likeness, Ron de Jeremy rum. (He had no handlers and no stipulations about video, but after the run-in with Bowden’s folks, I went prepared with a notepad and pen.)

(See the full article here.)

Over a two-day stay, Jeremy spent hours in beach locations including Kwiker Liquor, Ms. Newby’s, Pineapple Willy’s and Coyote Ugly, signing bottles, posters, books, DVDs and body parts for fans. He took the time with each one to pose for photos, listen to their stories and share jokes. He played his harmonica (and that’s not a euphemism).

He seemed to enjoy meeting all these strangers, and he laughed a lot. Nothing was off-limits for the interview.

>>Here is video from the day.<<

Say what you like about beauty vs. the beast: Our Facebook post about Bowden got nine likes and one comment over the weekend; the one about Jeremy got 13 likes and 11 comments. Bowden’s story was picked up by newspapers and websites around the world, and the short video of her dancing received more than 13,600 plays in the first four days.

It’s a tale as old as time

Peace.


This is my column, more or less, that appeared in today's paper and online at this link.

Occupy This

I don't generally talk politics. I have my reasons.

But I've been following the Occupy movement via Twitter, the NYT live Occupy blog and other online resources, and it irritates me that I can't find anything about it in local media. (Or, in recent days, as I was watching live feeds of clashes via the web, nothing was being broadcast on places like Headline News.) At least, that was the case on specific instances when I went looking for more info.

I could easily find newspaper and TV reports on the protests in Egypt, where citizens were sporting bleeding head wounds from military or police. I couldn't find reports on U.S. citizens who were being thrown in police vans with bleeding head wounds after the billionaire mayor of New York City sent in his helmeted police.

Even when that wounded citizen was a NYC councilman:

New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez screams police brutality while being arrested on Broadway after he was with a group who tried to push through a line of police officers. NYPD Clear Zuccotti Park of Occupy Wall St. Protestors. Tuesday November 15, 2011. NEW YORK, NY, USA. Photo by (Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger)

I could find stories about journalists being detained in foreign countries on trumped up charges because they were trying to cover the events there. I could not find stories about journalists being detained in my own country when they were trying to cover the Occupy movement:

A New York City Police Department accredited journalist is arrested while on Broadway. NYPD Clear Zuccotti Park of Occupy Wall St. Protestors. Tuesday November 15, 2011. NEW YORK, NY, USA. Photo by (Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger)

You can clearly see her press credentials on her lanyard. Journalists across the country -- 26 of them so far -- have been detained by police on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to obstruction just because they were on site of a breaking news story where peaceful protesters were getting the blunt end of what passes for justice in our country. Hit this link for info from Josh Stearns, who is tracking and verifying these arrests.

I could find stories about people being hit with tear gas or pepper spray or Mace while rioting in Tunisia, but there were no reports to be found of people being sprayed in the face with pepper spray while sitting and chanting on the sidewalk of an American city. That is, until this happened:

Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at Westlake Park. (Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com)

Does this sound like America? Oh, wait a minute:

John Filo's iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio, a 14-year-old runaway, kneeling in anguish over the body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after he was shot by the Ohio National Guard. (via Wikipedia.org)

I guess it does actually. No one has been killed yet, but give the people with the guns time; the movement is still young. Seems to me the last time this happened, there was a war on and our president was more concerned about China than his own people.

Larry Downing/Reuters

President Obama with Hu Jintao of China in Hawaii. Mr. Obama has stepped up his criticism of Chinese economic policies.

That's not who I meant, but man it's weird how history repeats. (And for the record, that photo ran with a story about how Obama and the Republican Congress found something they agree on: Criticizing Chinese trade practices. How nice for them. Did they also agree that pizza sauce counts as a serving of vegetables?)

Meanwhile, my friend Karen Zacharias today had some choice words about finding something to stand for before the movement falls apart because of a lack of singular vision or clearly stated mission, and because they're protesting the wrong folks -- we can't stop the rich from screwing us over, but maybe we can vote out the cronies that aid and abet them. Please read her essay, 'Occupy Congress.'


Anyway, I remarked on the lack of Occupy coverage in the media to a person who is ostensibly in charge of such things, and was told he didn't know about these stories. That a NYC councilman had been busted in the head and arrested. That journalists were being arrested. That U.C. students were pepper sprayed for sitting on a sidewalk; as I was telling him, the local TV news ran a clip from the video below, and he was shocked. Shocked, I say. (Really, you should watch this video.)



He also said the people who make decisions on "wire stories" are very conservative and wouldn't be interested in those stories.

I believe they are in the majority right now, and I say to them, 

Shame on you.

Words

Jack Saunders, Tim Riley and Matty.

Tuesday evening, I attended the opening reception of "WORDS," an exhibition of mail art organized by my friend Matty Jankowski (he of the bowler hat in the photos).

Matty, Jack, and Bettina Mead.

This is a quick photo blog to show you some of the folks in attendance. And considering how Matty told me the history of the saying, "A picture paints a thousand words," I'll let my pictures do the talking for his "Words."

Photographer Patrick Engman.

Artist Paulette Perlman, right.

The show will hang through September, as part of the library's upcoming focus on censorship and Banned Books Week. Watch your words.

Peace.

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it

News Herald Photo: Robert Cormier
speaks at Gulf Coast Community College
in February 1988.

PANAMA CITY — I met this week with a group of women who are putting together a plan to commemorate one of the darker times in their lives, when the community was divided over the appropriateness of certain books in our schools.
This year will mark the 25th anniversary of a controversy that put Bay County in headlines across the country and around the world. It started in 1986 with some books in a middle school teacher’s classroom library that a parent thought contained inappropriate content, and it continued in 1987 with the schools superintendent listing more than 60 books and plays to remove from student access.

Teachers fought to retain the books. Other teachers opposed them. The School Board held special meetings. Petitions were circulated and thousands signed them. Oprah had some of the participants on her show. Church members were bused to School Board meetings and spoke in tongues during the sessions.

Teachers received death threats. A fire was set under a TV reporter’s car.

The final outcome was a new School Board policy to review challenged books and other materials.

An outcome that no one seemed to expect at the time was that sales of the challenged materials increased during the controversy — one of the top local sellers in 1987 was “I am the Cheese” by Robert Cormier, which had started the whole controversy the year before, according to a News Herald article.

Ten years later, the books being challenged were those in the popular “Goosebumps” series — only this time, instead of raw language or “mature” situations causing consternation, it was a fear of children embracing the occult. The review process kept those books in classrooms, as it also kept “Of Mice and Men” in classrooms in 1997 after a local pastor objected to the racist slurs in the text.

The controversy continues. In 2008, the School Board voted 3-2 to remove Avi’s Newberry Award-winning “The Fighting Ground” from school libraries after a parent objected to language in the book.

I will moderate a discussion on censorship during the Books Alive festival of reading at Gulf Coast Community College on Feb. 5. Some of the panel members will include central characters in the banning controversy of 25 years ago. I encourage you to come out and participate, hear what they have to say and share your own thoughts.

As the good book says, “Come, let us reason together.”

Peace.

(This is my Undercurrents column for The News Herald for today's edition. To read a complete list of the books banned in Bay County in 1986 and 1987, click this link.)